New Spells: Travel Aeromancies
This content can now be found at its most updated version in The Elements and Beyond, a free 246-page compendium that you can download right here, filled with 23 subclasses, 8 spellcasting feats, 134 spells, 213 spell variants, 85 monsters, 30 magic items, 4 races plus 12 new subraces each with racial feats, and even more goodies for both players and DMs!
Today's spells are Aeromancy spells, which means they appear on the spell list for the new Aeromancer feat that will be appearing in the compendium. This feat, like the other spellcaster specialization feats in the compendium, provide bonuses for spells from their spell list and have special abilities that activate when you cast them. Since there are few cross-overs between lists, they are intended to be as meaningful and character-defining as weapon feats like Sharpshooter or Great-Weapon Master. These three spells are focused on movement and mobility, a common theme for Aeromancers, and share a thematic unity with the fly spell that makes it easy to reconcile retraining. For example, a low-level storm sorcerer may make use of the swoop spell until he is high enough level to cast fly, and then retrain swoop to fly, flavored as the character becoming more skilled at aerial magic.
Glide offers an alternative to feather fall that only affects the caster but can enable mobility by itself, as long as you can find a high enough place to jump from. Swoop is a simple mobility spell designed to synergize well with storm sorcerers who use a bonus action to fly and with casters who can use a bonus action to Dash or Disengage, like an Arcane Trickster rogue. Finally, Soar keeps the main benefits of the fly spell (the ability to avoid melee attackers and reach impossible places) while providing extra defensive boosts and speed for the increase in spell level from 3rd to 5th. Compare and contrast with a 5th-level fly spell, which grants flying speed to three creatures for the same level spell slot as for one soar target. Still, the extreme benefits of soar can be worth the reduced number of targets in many situations.
The optional rule for the fly spell is one example of a handful of such optional spell revisions that will be found in the compendiums, and this one is part of a larger goal to give the Ranger class some interesting and potent spells to match them closer to the Paladin in that regard. Since the Ranger specializes in managing and handling terrain, it made sense to me to expand their spell list with travel spells such as fly and glide. However, if these revisions don't feel right to you, you don't have to use them at all to make use of any of the other content in the compendiums. It's up to you!
This content is previewed from the upcoming The Elements and Beyond. One of the three upcoming compendiums planned, The Elements and Beyond is focused on not just the classic four elements, but the powers of the natural world and the planes surrounding it, and will contain not just dozens of new spells, but spellcaster specialization feats like the Aeromancer feat, new subclasses, and even races like the Pixie!
